ANITTA: The Truth Behind Her #1 Hit... Those Were My Darkest Days

Anitta 0:00 [dramatic music] I was the first Latina to have a solo song number one in the world. I was everywhere. Everyone was listening to the song. Everyone was dancing to it. Then I got sick. The global superstar from Brazil. It's Anitta. When we have nothing, we have something to blame, but when you have it and then you're still not happy, there's nobody else to blame but yourself.

Jay Shetty 0:30 Hey, everyone. I've got some huge news to share with you. In the last 90 days, 79.4% of our audience came from viewers and listeners that are not subscribed to this channel. There's research that shows that if you want to create a habit, make it easy to access. By hitting the subscribe button, you're creating a habit of learning how to be happier, healthier, and more healed. This would also mean the absolute world to me, and help us make better, bigger, brighter content for you in the world. Subscribe right now.

Speaker 1:05 The number one health and wellness podcast.

Anitta 1:07 Jay Shetty.

Speaker 1:08 Jay Shetty.

Jay Shetty 1:09 The one, the only Jay Shetty. It is 3:30 PM. You're going on stage tonight at 9:00 PM.

Anitta 1:17 Yes, I am.

Jay Shetty 1:18 I want everyone to know, Anitta, no one has ever come this early to On Purpose. Anitta was 45 minutes early, and she has a show this evening, and she's not asking to rush away. What does

Jay Shetty 1:31 a show day look for you? Like, when I watch you on stage, you're bold, you're powerful, you're, you're so energetic. Your performances are so emphatic. Like, how do you prepare? You're going on stage tonight. How do you prepare for that from now till then?

Anitta 1:45 So I think it's, uh, two Anittas for everything.

Jay Shetty 1:48 [laughs]

Anitta 1:48 Uh, f- few years ago and, and nowadays. I think before I used to just do so many things at the same time, and it was just this rush to conquer things, and I wanted to reach every opportunity, do everything, and it was very, like... It was a lot for me, you know? It was too much. Nowadays, uh, w- when it's a concert day, I like to just enjoy the day. Wake up, meditate, listen to some mantras, or do a massage, or something that I know that is gonna put me in a good vibe to exchange energy with the people, you know? So nowadays, I have this thing in my mind that I want it to be a great experience. In the beginning, I used to go on stage just thinking about the result, the later, what I'm gonna get from it, da, da, da. I wouldn't, I wasn't just thinking about the present moment of exchanging energy with those people.

Jay Shetty 2:47 Mm.

Anitta 2:48 And nowadays I do, so for me, it's really important for me to get to this place with a good, a, a circle of white light around me, you

Anitta 2:57 know?

Jay Shetty 2:57 Mm. And you said you meditate. What kind of practice is that? You said you do some mantras.

Anitta 3:01 Yes.

Jay Shetty 3:01 What does that look like for you?

Anitta 3:03 So I have a, a, a big circle of people that help me. I have a shaman, a woman that does constellation, a woman that does, um... It's called a... I don't know how to say that in English, but let me try to English-size the word. It's called a radionic table. It's like when you put some crystals and stones, and you do, like, a cleansing in your, in, in your aura or something like that. So I have these different people, and I dream a lot. So every time I wake up, I know what's about to come. For example, yesterday, I woke up feeling this crazy excitement, 'cause in the afternoon I did a kundalini session, uh, activation of kundalini, and this lady from Brazil, her name is Saiz, and she does it online. I do it in person, too, but I- sh- she does it online, and it's crazy 'cause your body just moves, and it's just, it's cr- it's so special. So I woke up yesterday feeling like I was gonna explode.

Jay Shetty 4:11 [laughs]

Anitta 4:11 It felt like my body was gonna do... It was so powerful. And I, I heard... I, I, I woke up with this song in my mind that I didn't know exactly what, where I heard this song before, and I was just singing. I was like, "I think it was in a yoga class." So I called my yoga teacher and I said, "Yo, have you played a song for me that goes like this?" Na, na, na. So I, I sang for her, and she goes, "Yes." So she sent me the link, and the name was Heart Chakra.

Jay Shetty 4:41 Mm.

Anitta 4:42 That meant so much to me, 'cause I woke up feeling like my heart was gonna explode. And when I had the song, that was the name. So yesterday, that's what I did. I, I was singing the song. I did a yoga. It was so special. Today, I woke up different. I don't know. I, I had some w- bad dreams, 'cause when... I believe when we dream, our soul, they travel-

Jay Shetty 5:06 Mm-hmm

Anitta 5:06 ... to different places, right? And sometimes it can be not a as good place. So I woke up feeling weird, and then I called this lady that does this, uh, cons- family constellation with me. So I said, "I feel weird." And she was like, "Okay, sit down. Let's meditate together." So she guides me, and, uh, she opens this en- energetic circle, and five minutes, 10 minutes later, I was already feeling amazing again. And then I was like, "Oh." It's so different when you are d- you have discipline and focus on keeping your frequency high. And every time I feel like it's not as high, I do something immediately to make it better. So for me to go in the concert, I need to be feeling on my highest, you know? [laughs]

Jay Shetty 5:58 Yeah. Thank you for sharing that with us, and I, I love that so much because I feel that, you know, if you're- ... out of milk at home, you go and buy milk, or if you're out of bread, you go and buy some

Jay Shetty 6:09 bread. And I think sometimes we overthink when we're out of inspiration or we're out of alignment or we're out of the l- higher frequency and we're feeling a lower frequency, we don't realize that all we have to do is reconnect-

Anitta 6:24 Yes

Jay Shetty 6:24 ... or plug in again.

Anitta 6:25 Yes.

Jay Shetty 6:25 And that simply brings it back. And I think we overthink and we think, "Oh, gosh, I'm not worthy of it," or, "I'm not good enough," or, "I lost it," or, "It's left me now." And we don't realize that it is something that we can recultivate and rebuild and regrow into. And so I love hearing that today you wo- yesterday you woke up feeling like this explosive energy, and today you woke up not feeling that. And that's kind of how something we can all relate to, I feel. Like, we all experience that.

Anitta 6:52 100%. And usually when we wake up not feeling that amazing, for s- maybe f- maybe from things from the subconscious or something like that, we f- we're, we're stuck in there, and we don't know what to do, and we don't feel like doing things. And that's what happens when we go in a lower frequency. We are aligned with, uh, and I believe in other spirits and things like that, we are aligned with other spirits and energies that want you to stay there.

Jay Shetty 7:22 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 7:22 So of course you're not gonna have the strength to go there, you know? But it's important to keep it and to do it just for the discipline, and then, and then you're gonna start elevating, elevating, elevating. And exercises that can seem idiots, idiotics, [laughs] but it's not. Like, one, my shaman, when I told her, she was like, "Okay, so you open your arms."

Jay Shetty 7:43 Yeah.

Anitta 7:43 "You do a circle." And I was, like, doing all these exercises, putting my, my, my arms up, breathing, doing it. When I was done, I was like, "Wow."

Jay Shetty 7:53 [laughs]

Anitta 7:54 Life is great again. And it just takes you a little bit of, of discipline to understand that it's in your power, and sometimes y- we like to play victim- victims, saying like, "Oh, I'm a victim. Like, some person did this and that to me. I feel bad because that person did this, that person did that." And, uh, no, you have the power to feel good. It doesn't matter what the other people do or the energy people throw at you. All of that is real and exists, but if you're aligned with yourself, nothing that the people do or throw at you can reach you, because you are powerful, in control of your all, of your own circle of energy, you know?

Jay Shetty 8:36 Yeah, absolutely. Well, for whatever it's worth, I can honestly say that from the moment you walked in and we interacted, I was like, "This energy is good."

Anitta 8:43 Ooh.

Jay Shetty 8:44 So for, for whatever it's worth, it's working. It's def-

Anitta 8:46 I felt the same here.

Jay Shetty 8:47 Thank you.

Anitta 8:47 Such a good energy here.

Jay Shetty 8:49 Thank you. But it, it's, I- I definitely felt that as soon as I, we met and we started talking, I was like, oh, wow, this is... I was so uplifted immediately through your space. So whatever's, whatever's happening,

Jay Shetty 8:58 it's working. Uh, walk, walk me through, what is, what are some of the things that you still find do bring energy down for people, or do bring our frequency and vibration down? Like, what is it for you that kind of feels that way?

Anitta 9:10 I think comparation, to be compared with others, it's one of the, I think the most, the, the most important thing right now that makes everybody go, you know, down. Because-

Jay Shetty 9:25 It's a great answer

Anitta 9:26 ... we have the internet in our p- in our hands, and we're there... It, it was made to connect us, but we're not connected at all anymore. Instead of connecting, we are just falling apart and, uh, spreading ourselves, like, and just becoming judgmental and everything. And I just think when we look at other people's, uh, pages, Instagram, TikTok, whatever, instead of just getting inspiration or, like, feeling happy for something, you start comparing and thinking, "Why I don't have this? I should have that. My life should be like this. I should the..." And then you never get to be yourself because you're so consume- consumed by other people's lives and, and choices, and then you think you need to be this, or, or then you see another per- "No, I need to be that." And then you see, "Oh, no, I, I should be doing this." And never you can get with yourself and be like, "What do I really wanna be? What do I really wanna do?" And dependent on all the other people that I know or that I follow, you know? And when we compare each others, we are not being fair to us, to them, because we are born in different status, different countries, different body shapes. Uh, society has so many rules to follow. Even with all the prejudice, racism, the opportunities are not the same. So you cannot compare somebody that is born in a country that doesn't have as much, uh, opportunities, structure, with a person that was born in the place that has 50 times more. It, it's super unfair. There's no balance. So when you put yourself in this unfair situation, I feel like your inner child gets mad at you. It's like a parent comparing two brothers, where a sister and a brother that was, were born in different times, different situations, they are not the same gender, they're... And then imagine your parent doing that to a kid. That's what you are doing to your, to your inner child.

Jay Shetty 11:35 Wow.

Anitta 11:36 And then you feel sad, you feel frustrated, and your mind starts... Because our mind works on the purpose of not letting us suffer, right? So when you start comparing, your mind starts creating this anxiety to f- uh, uh, think about solutions for you to not suffer. So for me, if I'm comparing myself with that person, what's the solution? I should do this and this and that so I can get close to it. And for me, it's, it's too much. And I used to be like that. I used to compare myself the whole time with other singers, and then I decided to come out of Brazil, something that nobody was doing. I s- um, when Brazil, we speak Portuguese, not Spanish. I was learning Spanish, learning the culture, learning English. So why I was comparing myself to people outside or to people in Brazil that were... They were not even leaving Brazil. I was, I was, uh, putting effort in something that, of course, I would need to step a little bit behind, le- leave Brazil a little bit. So of course, I cannot compare with the people in Brazil because they are not putting... They are putting 100% of the time. I'm putting 50, 'cause the other 50, I'm here studying, learning other things. And I cannot compare with the people that speak Spanish or, or English, because they are in Spanish or English. They're not in Brazil 50% of the time coming back to Brazil to give this... Uh, and I have, I had this always comparing, always comparing. And, um, nowadays, I just feel like, "Wow, I was so, I was so mean to myself."

Jay Shetty 13:17 Mm.

Anitta 13:18 You know? Uh, it's, it's not fair to do this to you, you know? And not even, not even about the things that we can see, which is, like, nationality or physical type, but, but also family karmas, family traumas, you know, past lives. So many things that we cannot even know how hard it is for me or for you. It's just different.

Jay Shetty 13:44 Yeah. Well said. Absolutely. I think you're so right that instead of connecting, we're comparing, and we get lost in that trap, and it feels like a prison.

Anitta 13:53 Yeah.

Jay Shetty 13:53 And you kind of keep going round and round in a loop. I mean, speaking

Jay Shetty 13:56 of comparing, you were saying that a few years ago, y- before an event, you would've been, like, doing so many things and doing all this, and now you're like, "Well, wait a minute. Actually, I want to meditate. I wanna do this." What changed?

Anitta 14:06 In two... When my song went number one in the world, uh, I worked so hard for that. I was the first Latina, first female Latin singer to have a solo song number one in the world, and it was just like I was everywhere. Everyone was listening to the song. Everyone was dancing to it, and then I got sick. I got super sick. And usually, when I talk about that, people go like, "But what was it? What... " And we don't know.

Jay Shetty 14:34 Mm.

Anitta 14:34 I just couldn't walk upstairs in my house. I was super tired. I was super... I wasn't strong. I, I couldn't breathe well. It was so many things, and then my bladder had issues, and then I did a blood test, and it was, like, a lot of cancer indicators. It was just a lot of things that was at the same time nothing, but it was. It was so crazy. And then, um, I tried everything. I stayed in the hospital for so many months, and just seeing all this success, and I was not happy at all. I was just on this, in this internal fight with my duality 'cause I believe we all, we all have this duality, which is our ego with our soul, you know? And then I met this shaman, and she does this method called Pregnancy Map. She gets all the informations from your mother's pregnancy when you were inside of her, and then she understands the kind... The, the way your brain works, the way your... How your soul, your inner child suffered. What are your fears, your traumas, your karmas? And then, um, I went to her retreat for five days.

Jay Shetty 15:51 Mm.

Anitta 15:51 Um, no cell phone, no, no power, no light, nothing, just nature, a lot of therapy, a lot of, uh, crystals. A lot of, like, rituals that are actually, like, meditation three times a day. And then f- to eat, we wouldn't eat with knife and fork. It was with the hands to feel what we were eating, the food that was planted there, and we could be part of it, thinking about how this food was done, the whole process until it gets to our mouths and everything. So I was there, and, um, this whole time, right, she, she tells you, like, things that you wanna give up, leave, and things that you wanna bring to you. And I was just, um... You know when you're so focused on what people are saying or what people are expecting from you that you don't listen to yourself?

Jay Shetty 16:52 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 16:52 I was kind of like that, and I was, um, writing, like, "I talk too much. I'm very, like, outspoken. I'm... I just-

Jay Shetty 17:04 [laughs]

Anitta 17:05 "D- I'm always with different guys. I talk too much, dance too much. I... Oh, I'm very, like, extravagant. I move my hands too much. I da-da..." You know when you just-

Jay Shetty 17:16 [laughs]

Anitta 17:16 ... look at what people say about you, and you just wanna be less? I said, "I wanna le- I wanna talk less. I wanna be less. I'm too much," so I write all those things. And then what I want, I wanna be balanced, I wanna be calm, I wanna be patient because my brother is very much like that. And my mom... It's fun 'cause nowadays, me, my brother, my dad, my mom, we all went on this journey together, and my family, too. So they all do sessions of Kundalini with me, family constellations. It's so good. Um, but my brother was more of, like, a calm, patient, chill, like my mom, and I was very much like my dad. "Da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Dance party. Ha, ha, ha, ha."

Jay Shetty 18:02 [laughs]

Anitta 18:03 As they bro- they, they divorced when I was one year, one year old- My mom used to be more connected, and it was hard for me to understand when I was a kid, and nowadays I super understand. But it's not about nowadays, it's about when you were a child. Um, she used to have this connection with my da- with my brother more, and I had more with my dad, but he was out. We didn't live at the same house. So, that was very painful to me and, and, and s- as a kid. Um, so I wanted to be like my brother, and I didn't understand that the fact that we are different is the special, you know? Me as a kid, of course. And then I put all those things, and I was so confused. And the character Anitta and me as a person is so different 'cause I think when the, when the artist is an actor, it's easy for the audience to see the actor acting and understand, "Oh, that's a character, and I don't know how this actor is in life." For a singer, it's different 'cause they see you doing that on stage or speaking in interviews, da, da, da, da, da, and they think, "Oh, that's the person."

Jay Shetty 19:15 Yeah.

Anitta 19:16 Right?

Jay Shetty 19:16 Yeah.

Anitta 19:16 They don't understand that that's also a character that you made to protect yourself, that you're, that's your public character, but your real person is really different most of the times. For me, it was really hard, and I was like, "Yeah, this Anitta has nothing to do with me. I, well, I used to be chill, I used to be this." Da, da, da. Very, like, mean to me again.

Jay Shetty 19:40 Yeah.

Anitta 19:41 In the end of the process, my brother went with me 'cause I was like, "I'm going to this place and I have no idea what it is."

Jay Shetty 19:47 [laughs]

Anitta 19:48 "I need somebody to come with me 'cause what if it's dangerous?" It was not. It was great. But in the middle of it, in the end of it, my brother was like, "Oh, wow, I'm so happy you came." And my brother didn't believe in any of these things, right? And, uh, I was like, I looked at him and I was disgusted. I felt disgust. Because she does a lot of, like, spiritual... It's kind of like, let's say Reiki, but it's not.

Jay Shetty 20:14 Yeah.

Anitta 20:14 It's, it's more deeper than that. And I looked at him and I was like, "I'm disgusted." And then, um, she came to me. We were gonna leave, and she said, "How do you feel?" I said, "Awful. I think I wasted my time."

Jay Shetty 20:35 No way.

Anitta 20:35 I was feeling this dark energy inside of me. It was so bad. And, uh, she said, "Okay. Lay down. Let's talk." And I laid down, and she put my, her hands here on me. And then when she did that, my... And we don't take anything there, right? No drugs, no, not microdosing, nothing. It's just meditation.

Jay Shetty 20:58 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 20:58 That's it. And me as a kid, I showed up in front of me, this girl. Just with my eyes closed, you know? And it happens inside of you. And she was looking at me like this. [laughs] And I looked at her and I was like, "Please, stay here. There's a demon here. There's a demon sending this dark energy around us. We need to protect ourselves." And she was just looking at me like this.

Jay Shetty 21:27 [laughs]

Anitta 21:29 And I was like, "Yeah, stay here, stay here."

Jay Shetty 21:31 [laughs]

Anitta 21:32 And she said, "No, it's not a demon." The, the little me.

Jay Shetty 21:38 Yeah. [laughs]

Anitta 21:38 The little me, like that. "It's not a demon. You wanted to be less talkative, less this, less that, less jumper, less..." 'Cause I, I was eh, eh, eh.

Jay Shetty 21:51 [laughs]

Anitta 21:52 Less expressive. "I am not less. I am more. So if you want to be less, I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna let you here alone." And I was like-

Jay Shetty 22:00 Wow

Anitta 22:01 ... I was like, "No, no, no, no. Oh my God, no, no, no, no, no, you're perfect. You're perfect the way you are." And I was just hugging her like, "You're perfect. Please. Oh my God, you're perfect." And she was like, "Mm, okay. Are you gonna accept that I like to jump, I like to dance, I like to talk loud, I like to call attention 'cause I'm amazing? You felt lonely, and I, I survived. I'm a genius. I'm smart. I'm talented, and you're not looking at it. You want me to be less." And I was like, "No, I want you to be everything you can be."

Jay Shetty 22:36 [laughs]

Anitta 22:36 "Please, oh God. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." And, uh, since that day, and then when we make [laughs] pieces with each other, since that day, I know how to go there, close my eyes, talk to my inner chi- child, and understand what's wrong, and hug her and, and say, and, and ask w- why we're not happy, why, what's happening, why are we mad, why are we feeling anxious. And then she tells me, and then I'm like, "Okay, let's get it done as adults that we are." You know? And sometimes we don't realize that our inner childs can be so hurt that start doing things that we don't like. And sometimes we ask ourselves, "Why do I behave like that? Why I'm so mad?" Or why I'm so childish sometimes. And it's because of that, and we need to learn how to connect. And then after that, I just started prioritizing different things.

Jay Shetty 23:42 Mm.

Anitta 23:43 You know, I started to prioritize my peace, my time, take care of me. 'Cause I think people congratulate you a lot about your professional accomplishments. "Oh, you're doing great. You're doing good. You're doing great." And then you just feel like you need that to be somebody.

Jay Shetty 24:07 Yeah.

Anitta 24:08 You need that to be somebody.

Jay Shetty 24:09 True.

Anitta 24:09 And you don't need I watched a movie these da- And I, I love watching movies that put me on the good frequency. I watched a movie these days called Becoming Nobody.

Jay Shetty 24:19 Oh, I haven't seen that.

Anitta 24:20 Have you watched that?

Jay Shetty 24:20 No, I haven't seen that.

Anitta 24:21 It's really good.

Jay Shetty 24:21 Okay.

Anitta 24:22 Becoming Nobody. And, um, I, I was v- I woke up, like some month ago, I woke up feeling, mm. And I watched this movie, and I, whoop, came back to my frequency right away.

Jay Shetty 24:34 [laughs]

Anitta 24:34 'Cause th- you know, there are-

Jay Shetty 24:35 Yeah

Anitta 24:35 ... tools that can help you. It's a song or a movie. And, um, I was so... There was this emptiness inside of me that I felt like I could fulfill it with success, awards, streams, algorithms. And these days, a friend of mine from Brazil that she was, like, very poor, very, like, she used to struggle a lot in life. And then few years ago, she got everything she wanted, um, money, everything, success. And she texted me these days. And I have a, my friends know that I'm very spiritual nowadays, and so they always text me for something. "What can I do? I feel-"

Jay Shetty 25:18 [laughs]

Anitta 25:18 "... I'm gonna..." It's so, it's funny, and, and I feel glad. She said, "I feel like I was happier when I had nothing."

Jay Shetty 25:25 Mm.

Anitta 25:26 And I told her, "I think it's because when we have nothing, we have something to blame." So we say, "Oh, I'm, I'm not happy because I don't have a house. I'm not happy because I don't have money. I'm not happy because I'm not successful." So we just be like, "Oh, okay. It's because I don't have that. Let's keep going."

Jay Shetty 25:46 Yeah.

Anitta 25:47 But when you have it and then you're still not happy, there's nobody else to blame but yourself.

Jay Shetty 25:53 Wow.

Anitta 25:54 And then you feel bad because you're like, "Wow, I have everything and I'm not happy. What's going on? What I'm still looking for? You know, I got all the awards I wanted. I got all the streams. I got this. I got that. And now I still feel that I, it's missing something."

Jay Shetty 26:11 Yeah.

Anitta 26:13 But it's not. It's because we were doing these things not because we were feeling good or enjoying the journey. It's because we thought that the result was gonna fulfill us on something that just we, we can do for ourselves.

Jay Shetty 26:30 Yeah.

Anitta 26:31 You know?

Jay Shetty 26:31 Well said. That's, that's really powerful. I've, I've never heard it put like that, that difference between when you didn't have anything, you had something to blame, whereas when you have everything, you don't have anything to blame. And that is so interesting because I think people always say, like, "Oh, money doesn't buy happiness," or, "Awards don't buy happiness." And it's like, sure, that makes sense, but the real thing is because we haven't yet figured out what does give our life meaning, what does give us a sense of connection. And I guess that's what's given you confidence now in your career at this stage-

Anitta 27:02 Yeah

Jay Shetty 27:02 ... to shift and create music from a place of, "I'm gonna be bold, I'm gonna be authentic, I'm gonna be myself, I'm not gonna care about..." 'Cause I think at one point you were saying, I was reading your amazing, uh, honor for you in Variety,

Jay Shetty 27:16 and congratulations on that. It was incredible to see. And I was reading, you were talking about how, you know, at one point you did get really attached and addicted to all those things, as you do, as things are growing and things are going ahead. And you said, "Well, now I actually don't feel that way. I want to..." Do you think that's just a natural effect of having achieved so much, and then you think to yourself, "Okay, now I wanna do something more meaningful," or?

Anitta 27:38 No.

Jay Shetty 27:38 Yeah.

Anitta 27:38 I don't think so because, uh, I know a lot of people that they still feel that they need more. They, they f- they still feel that it's because they are falling. You know? Say they, so they still feel like they need more. They want more, so they want a bigger house, a bigger car, a bigger this, more this, more of that. And they are not understanding what's the point. You know? They feel like... And I think it's because nowadays, um, the streaming, the algorithms, the internet, it's just crazy how people operate nowadays. Um, it doesn't matter if you had the biggest success for five years, if nowadays you're not selling as much, if nowadays you're not number one anymore and you w- you, people got used to see you number one many times or top 10 many times, now you're not even going to top 50, they're gonna start saying, "Wow, this person, dead. Dead." And I hate this behavior of the industry to be like, "Oh, no, not hot anymore. This person is hot now. That person not hot," so that means whatever this person did for these five years, I don't know, it doesn't matter because now this person's not hot anymore. "Oh, cheesy. Oh, bad. Ugh, don't associate with this person. Ugh, this person dead." But if tomorrow this person has a, a success, "Oh, no, super cool. Come on." And that was driving me so crazy. And I just understood we were, um, depending on these people's approval to see if we had value or not, and I did not wanna be, um, uh, dependent on that.

Jay Shetty 29:19 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 29:19 You know? It feels like you are in the, people's hands, and I don't want that. And I feel like we are only successful and happy if we know that if I lose everything, if I'm not number one, number 10, number 100, number 300, I'm still gonna be happy. If yes, then great. If no, then you need to stop everything that you're doing-

Jay Shetty 29:43 [laughs]

Anitta 29:43 ... and start working on yourself to make sure even if you lose everything, you're still happy.

Jay Shetty 29:50 Yeah.

Anitta 29:50 'Cause then you're gonna make good decisions. So I only, um, when I started to go on this journey of understanding myself and understanding that I was doing things just because I was so empty inside and I felt like I was not good enough, I needed s- more people's approval, people love, where it was like a drug. Success is like a drug if you don't understand it's like part of life. So when I understood that, I was like I'm just gonna do the type of music that I feel like. If I get 10 plays, [laughs] if I have 10 million or 100, I don't care. I wanna feel good. I wanna feel ha- feel happy. Also, I feel like everyone has their moment.

Jay Shetty 30:36 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 30:36 God gives us the moment for us to enjoy this. Amazing, and then we go to the next-

Jay Shetty 30:42 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

Anitta 30:42 ... to evolve on something else.

Jay Shetty 30:44 Yeah.

Anitta 30:44 We did what we needed here. Oh, great. You killed it. Got all the awards, all the success. Let's go to another thing.

Jay Shetty 30:52 Yeah.

Anitta 30:52 No. We get addicted because the people in this environment, if you're not there anymore, they're gonna say, "Ugh, this person? Nah, dead. Not good."

Jay Shetty 31:03 [laughs]

Anitta 31:03 And then you pay attention to that, and you're like, "No, I can't lose this," so you keep doing all the things that you are already tired of doing. It doesn't give you the same pleasure anymore, but you keep doing it just so people don't say you failed. So I was like, "You know what?"

Jay Shetty 31:20 [laughs]

Anitta 31:21 "I do not care. Everyone can tell me I failed. 'Oh, my God, she used to be a success. Now?'" [laughs] "Nobody cares." I care. That's all that matters to me. I don't care if nobody cares. [laughs]

Jay Shetty 31:35 Yeah.

Anitta 31:35 You know?

Jay Shetty 31:35 There, there's a... I love hearing that. There's a beautiful Zen saying that you're reminding me of. This Zen saying says that letting go is hard, but holding on is harder.

Anitta 31:46 100%.

Jay Shetty 31:46 And often all of our pain is coming because we're holding on to who we were, holding on to who we wish we were, holding on to what people used to love, holding on to what people validated, what people approved, and we're holding on to that and not realizing that universe, the God energy, is trying to gently take us away, but our holding on is what's making it so aggressive and painful. And that's when, you know, if you're holding on to anything really, really tight and it's being taken away, it's gonna hurt you. And, and I think that's what we all go through. We don't want to gracefully accept growth, and so we sometimes get aggressively pushed out and pushed through it.

Anitta 32:28 Yes. It's 'cause I think society has taught us that we need to always be growing.

Jay Shetty 32:35 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 32:36 But when they say growing, it's not inside.

Jay Shetty 32:39 Yeah. [laughs]

Anitta 32:39 It's outside.

Jay Shetty 32:40 Yeah.

Anitta 32:41 So your house cannot be the same house in 10 years. You have to be moved to a bigger one, a better one. Your job cannot be the same job. Even if you're happy-

Jay Shetty 32:51 [laughs]

Anitta 32:52 ... no, no, no. You gotta be bigger.

Jay Shetty 32:54 Yeah.

Anitta 32:54 But nature is one thing. We, we come here, and we have... If we see how animals behave, right? They go down to a tree. The bird goes there, eat what's necessary for him-

Jay Shetty 33:06 Mm-hmm

Anitta 33:06 ... and leaves.

Jay Shetty 33:07 Mm-hmm. Mm.

Anitta 33:08 The human goes there and gets what's necessary for him, and let me get more just to, just to have.

Jay Shetty 33:13 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 33:14 Just to see that I have more.

Jay Shetty 33:16 [laughs]

Anitta 33:17 Just to show people that I have more. But then you're not even... You don't need it.

Jay Shetty 33:21 Yeah, yeah.

Anitta 33:21 You don't need it. But the way society taught us that we need more, we need to be every day bigger and bigger, then if you go a little smaller in this area to go bigger in another area that people are not seeing-

Jay Shetty 33:37 Mm-hmm

Anitta 33:38 ... that doesn't...

Jay Shetty 33:39 Yeah

Anitta 33:39 ... it's not the same value, you know?

Jay Shetty 33:41 Yeah.

Anitta 33:42 I chose now in my life to... I understood I went so big, and it was so good. I'm down to keep going, and-

Jay Shetty 33:49 [laughs]

Anitta 33:49 ... if it goes bigger, it's cool. If it doesn't, it's super cool, too. I'm happy to sing to the amount of people that I'm singing now, or if it becomes less because I'm a little le- less crazy, it's fine to me, too, because I wanna grow in something else. It's so good when you do... When I do my spiritual things, I feel so happy. I feel like nothing could give me this happiness. It doesn't end. It's f- it just goes, and it goes... That goes bigger, and it's unfinishable, you know?

Jay Shetty 34:21 Yeah.

Anitta 34:21 And, um, doesn't give you anxiety. It just gets better, better, better. And I'm like, "I'm super down to be less successful here-

Jay Shetty 34:29 [laughs]

Anitta 34:30 ... and make more money."

Jay Shetty 34:31 Yeah.

Anitta 34:32 Or less, not more money. Make, like, less money to get big in this other side which is inside.

Jay Shetty 34:39 Yeah.

Anitta 34:39 You know?

Jay Shetty 34:40 Yeah, yeah. I always find that material language is big and better, bigger and better, and then spiritual language is deeper and more impactful. And, and that depth is, I think, what sounds like you're searching after.

Jay Shetty 34:56 With... Was this the same time that you were suffering with, like, endometriosis?

Anitta 35:00 Yes.

Jay Shetty 35:00 Was this, was this, like, the hormonal changes, like-

Anitta 35:03 It was that, and then it was more, and then I found out that was there, that, and then it was my bladder, and then it was, it was so many things. And then when I came out, I came out of the retreat, the cancer, um, levels in my blood was not there anymore. I didn't have anything. It was just getting better, and now I feel like I'm in control. I do feel like emotional... When we hold on to emotion and emotional traumas and things like that, it can get physical, you know? And when I do, like, family constellations, for example, if people don't... They never heard of it, please search 'cause it's so good. Um, when I do that, I feel sometimes pain in somewhere while we're doing the, the session. I feel like, or my bladder or my heart or my, my stomach. And then when it's, when it's over, I feel like, "Whoa, I cleaned. It's better."

Jay Shetty 35:57 Yeah.

Anitta 35:57 You know? So I do feel like it can become physical, for sure.

Jay Shetty 36:01 Yeah. What, what were

Jay Shetty 36:02 the biggest traumas that have stayed with you, that have come up for you, that you feel you've carried? Because you obviously grew up in the favelas. You grew up, you know, not in the easiest of circumstances. I think you mentioned yourself that you're almost treated like trash in Brazil-

Anitta 36:17 Yes

Jay Shetty 36:17 ... the people in the favelas.

Anitta 36:18 For so long.

Jay Shetty 36:18 And so, like- Tell me about what are the traumas you felt you've held onto from your childhood that are now coming up that you're healing now?

Anitta 36:26 So there's this one interesting situation in the path of this healing thing. There was this one thought that was always coming to my mind, right? I was here being Anitta. I have three different houses. I have everything I need. Okay, if I wanna retire right now, I can, and I will live comfortably-

Jay Shetty 36:46 Mm-hmm

Anitta 36:46 ... for the rest of my life. But all of a sudden, I was just here minding my business, and a thought would come to my mind, "What if I get pregnant and I lose all my money, and I don't have money to survive, and then I need to, uh, work in the streets to get food to my babies and to..." And I would be like, "Why am I thinking this? Why am I doing that? Why?" And then I did this session with, um, my shaman, and she said, "This is not your thought. You got this thought..." The same way we get DNA from our parents in, like, the hair, the eyes, the body, we can get from thoughts-

Jay Shetty 37:27 Mm-hmm

Anitta 37:28 ... and energy, behaviors, and we don't realize that. So I told her, "Oh, for real?" And then we did a session to clean this, right, to remove this from me 'cause it's not mine. It comes from my family. So I did the session, and I talked to my mom. I said, "Mom, have you ever had this thought of, like, that you were gonna lose everything, we're not gonna have money, this and that?" And that was, like, right before my, my birthday of 30 years old birthday. So she said, "Yeah. Um, when I got pregnant from you, your dad lost his job, and I felt like we were not gonna have money to feed you guys, and I would need to work in, in houses as, like, a housemaid or something to buy food." And I was like, "Wow, that makes to..." And she spent the whole pregnancy with this fear of not having the money to feed us, so she was fearing it. And there is, like... I, I produced a movie with a friend of mine called Me, and, um, it talks about this, the, the, the thoughts, the negative thoughts that your mom carries in the pregnancy-

Jay Shetty 38:41 Mm

Anitta 38:41 ... becomes, um, neuropeptides in your, in your, in your brain, so that's why you have these thoughts. And I was like, "Wow, Mom." And I did the, the session with the lady, and I got b- I never had this thought again. And then I was doing my birthday. It was 30 years old, so special, da da da, and I g- I, I had this place that I wanted to do in Brazil, and for some reason, every place I was trying, it was not available.

Jay Shetty 39:12 Mm.

Anitta 39:12 I was trying everywhere. "Oh, not available because of this. Not available because of that." I closed one place. "No, not available anymore." So there's this j- this one place, just this one spot. And I said, "Okay, let's go. What can we do? It's the only spot. Let's do it. Let's go." So I sent my dad the invitation, sent to my dad. I said, "Oh, Dad, the party this year is gonna be here." He was like, "Oh my God, daughter. This address is the..." And my dad didn't know about the, the c- talk I had to my mom, nothing, right? And he's my best friend, but I, I didn't mention him. Um, he goes, "Oh my God, daughter, this address used to be the company's address that I got fired when your mom-

Jay Shetty 39:58 No way

Anitta 39:58 ... was pregnant." And I was like, "I'm dead."

Jay Shetty 40:01 [laughs] Wow.

Anitta 40:02 Like, we're here celebrating my 30 years old with a party, like, full of everything that we are always afraid of not having.

Jay Shetty 40:10 That's crazy.

Anitta 40:10 In the same address? That's crazy. Where in life does it... That, for me, was such an answer from-

Jay Shetty 40:18 Yeah

Anitta 40:18 ... the universe, right? And I was like, "Wow, this is so meaningful." And life is full of these, these situations that, for me, are not coincidence at all.

Jay Shetty 40:29 Yeah. That's c- that's incredible.

Anitta 40:31 It is.

Jay Shetty 40:31 That's really powerful, and I love that full circle moment.

Anitta 40:34 Agree.

Jay Shetty 40:35 And, and I, and I love... I mean, the movie that you

Jay Shetty 40:38 made, is that out? Where can we watch that? Me?

Anitta 40:40 The name is Me.

Jay Shetty 40:41 Yeah.

Anitta 40:41 My, my f- a friend of mine, the one introduced me to this shaman, uh, she did it, and then she called... She asked me to help her producing it and, um, uh, sharing with the platforms and everything, so I was helping her on this final, uh, m- touch of the movie. And it talks about this, about how you can get heritage from your parents-

Jay Shetty 41:06 Yes

Anitta 41:06 ... not only in your blood-

Jay Shetty 41:08 Yes

Anitta 41:08 ... physical, but also mental-

Jay Shetty 41:11 Yes

Anitta 41:11 ... and karmas that come-

Jay Shetty 41:12 That's brilliant

Anitta 41:13 ... from your mom, from your grandmother, from... because it comes from father to daughter-

Jay Shetty 41:19 Yeah

Anitta 41:19 ... you know? And, um, it's important to clean it-

Jay Shetty 41:23 Mm-hmm

Anitta 41:23 ... to, to work on it because otherwise we're here with no purpose.

Jay Shetty 41:27 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 41:28 We're not... We, we get... We spend all this time here, and we don't figure out what's your purpose, what are you here for, you know? And I always had in my life this, um, desire to understand. And when I was a kid, I was very like that already. I used to d- dream a lot of, about a lot of things. My mom tells me that I used to wake up and see people, and um, I was always very connected. I used to tell them everything that was gonna happen in my life, everything.

Jay Shetty 42:00 Yeah, you had visions of, heard you say.

Anitta 42:02 Everything. I used to tell them like, "Oh, I'm, I'm gonna sing here. I'm gonna do this. Our house is gonna be like this, like this." I w- I used to g- give them details of everything. And, um, my, my dad, he was always very stressed with work, and he tells me that I used to come to him and say "Dad, don't worry. In the end, everything's gonna be great. You will see. You're so smart. You're so cute. You're so nice. In the end, you will see you're not gonna worry about any of this. I'm gonna be a singer. I'm gonna do this and this and that."

Jay Shetty 42:37 [laughs]

Anitta 42:37 And it's so fun when he tells me, because I was actually describing so precisely what, precisely what was gonna happen.

Jay Shetty 42:45 Yeah. I mean, you've... It sounds like you've made so much spiritual investment in transforming your mind, your heart, your energy, your space, and at the same time you've also made physical changes. Like, I was learning that you also were on birth control, and then you left birth control.

Anitta 43:02 Yeah.

Jay Shetty 43:02 And I feel like even those types of changes-

Anitta 43:05 Yes

Jay Shetty 43:05 ... were linked to this kind of internal change that was going on.

Anitta 43:09 100%.

Jay Shetty 43:09 Right? Like, walk me

Jay Shetty 43:11 through how life has been different when you were on birth control and then when you left. Like w- and walk us through that decision.

Anitta 43:17 I just feel like it's not natural. It was not natural, you know? And I was just... And it's not fair if you stop to think, why just the woman needs to suffer about this situation, you know? It's, it needs to be a two-people decision and prevention and, and care. Um, but with hormones, w- it was crazy because I couldn't be... It was just never, life was never like this. It was like, crazy to me, and I don't get along. My body is, doesn't receive this well, you know? And when I started to accept, uh, and to go into more na- of a natural life, also in my, my nutrition, I try to eat vegan in a lot of moments. Not 100%. I, I, I, I made it for two years, and then-

Jay Shetty 44:07 Wow

Anitta 44:07 ... it got... Yeah, it was really good. I, I hope I can get again in the future. Um, but w- the more I can... I, I think if everyone cuts at least 30 pers- percent, 30%, you, you can still eat, but just 30% less of animals', uh, food, uh, and everything, it's already so good for the world, you know? And also for our energy. I understand it's hard. It's delicious. I, I couldn't... Like, I made it two years, and I'm back. But just 30% less. Everyone, if we all get together in this decision, it's already a big shift for the universe, you know? That's what I believe. And it changed a lot to me when I started to care and, and give more attention and, and priority to this side of life. 'Cause before, I was just worried about being more successful, richer, make more money. And it, what, what was crazy was that I wanted to make more money, be more successful, but I had no idea how much money I had.

Jay Shetty 45:14 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 45:15 I didn't check my bank accounts. And I was just making to make it. I didn't even know. Nowadays, I'm more chill, but I know.

Jay Shetty 45:24 [laughs]

Anitta 45:24 I check my stuff. I take care of it, but I'm like, "Okay, I can chill. I don't need a bigger house. I don't need a, a, two different cars. I'm fine," you know?

Jay Shetty 45:36 Yeah. How was the birth control negatively affecting you hormonally, or what were you experiencing?

Anitta 45:41 So, um, hair loss, um, and then the skin goes crazy, and then the mood goes crazy, and then you get very depressed in the moment, and then very happy, and then very angry, and then... It's a roller coaster. It's a roller coaster. And I just didn't want that. And then, and also your energy. It, when it, when it gets close to the period, you have no energy. I just wanted to sleep all day. It was just so bad. And now I'm just stable.

Jay Shetty 46:14 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 46:14 I'm always the same.

Jay Shetty 46:15 And you can feel that difference?

Anitta 46:16 Yeah, I can feel totally the difference.

Jay Shetty 46:19 Yeah.

Anitta 46:19 But it, it, it took from me more than a year to get clean from, from birth control. It... more than a year for me to stop feeling the side effects.

Jay Shetty 46:29 Yeah. And it's interesting what you said about that joint responsibility of prevention-

Anitta 46:34 Yes

Jay Shetty 46:34 ... between two people-

Anitta 46:35 Yes

Jay Shetty 46:35 ... but it all falls on the woman.

Anitta 46:36 Come on.

Jay Shetty 46:36 Yeah.

Anitta 46:37 It's two people deciding something, right?

Jay Shetty 46:40 Yeah.

Anitta 46:40 It shouldn't be just the woman's responsibility.

Jay Shetty 46:42 Yeah.

Anitta 46:43 And I feel like if it was the man getting pregnant, it would be very different.

Jay Shetty 46:48 Very different.

Anitta 46:49 The laws would be different. The, the, the birth controls would be different. Everything would be-

Jay Shetty 46:56 Yeah

Anitta 46:56 ... very different.

Jay Shetty 46:57 And I think people don't realize these side effects that you're explaining right now. I feel like it's so common for women to be on birth control, but people don't realize, like, how many other negative impacts it's having in life, whether it's mood, performance.

Anitta 47:11 Yes, and I think also in the future, maybe when you're older, you're gonna feel more. And before I had, uh, I had a copper IUD, and, uh, it was so bad for my uterus, so bad. It was just a lot of blood, and then it's worse for the endometriosis. It was a whole thing. So nowadays, I just use condom. They exist, they exist for a reason.

Jay Shetty 47:35 [laughs]

Anitta 47:36 You know? I pray God.

Jay Shetty 47:37 [laughs]

Anitta 47:38 I talk to the universe. I plan with the universe when is the time. I use the condom, and let's go.

Jay Shetty 47:44 No, no kid today. [laughs]

Anitta 47:46 [laughs] I just, I just, um, I can feel it. And, uh, I think the universe, when you plan it and when you communicate... I communicate with the universe so much. I say, "Okay, so I wanna do this, this, and that, and then you can send me the person that I believe that it's a good person to be the father, be the father of my kids, and then... or the mother, and then I will be ready to do it. But I want this answer. For, for me to start this, I need the ans- the universe to give me that."

Jay Shetty 48:18 Yeah.

Anitta 48:19 So I always talk. I write a lot what I want. I check the eclipses, the, the moon, and I write according to that. And then I feel like all of this are like- ... um, natural, safe rituals that you can do that can only do good for you, you know? And I like to take baths of, baths of plants, roses, um, where different plants that are good for different... I, I love the indigenous, um, thoughts that they, that they have and, and the, the way the plants can cure everything, and also the energy.

Jay Shetty 48:56 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 48:56 So I use that a lot on me.

Jay Shetty 48:58 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 48:59 I do my own, my own stuff. [laughs]

Jay Shetty 49:01 Yeah. That's incredible. I love it.

Jay Shetty 49:04 And, and you've talked a lot about the difference between your authentic self, Larissa, and then Anitta. And what... I wanna know, what are the differences in your mind now-

Anitta 49:13 [laughs]

Jay Shetty 49:13 ... as you've been... it seems like you've been aligning yourself. Like, what are the differences now?

Anitta 49:17 Yes. So every time I do family constellations, I don't know if you know exactly how this process goes.

Jay Shetty 49:23 Tell us. I know a little bit, but tell us-

Anitta 49:25 So it's like this

Jay Shetty 49:25 ... because you're good for everyone here.

Anitta 49:26 You get a therapist that is the professional. She opens a circle of energy, and then there's a lot of people there, right? They know nothing about your life, nothing about you're going there to treat. So you just tell them, you decide the theme. So you can say, "Oh, I wanna treat... today I wanna treat my anxiety," or, "I wanna treat depression," or whatever. So I'm gonna give an example. There was this day I said, "I, today I wanna treat self-love." And then it comes, it, for me, right? So and if you go there and you wanna treat whatever, these people, these 10 people that are there, they're gonna get in their bodies the energy of the people from your family that caused your, this trauma in your body in that precise moment.

Jay Shetty 50:20 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Anitta 50:21 So let's say you have anxiety, and then you say, you sit there and you say, "Oh, I have anxiety." These people, one person is gonna ha- receive your dad's energy. It's not that he's gonna rec- receive the spirit, because your dad is alive, your mom is alive, everyone is alive, but they get the energy, and they start telling you where this moment of trauma was, uh, done, designed, dra- uh, like written, you know? So let's suppose it's because when you were 10 years old, your parents divorced, and they were not together. They were fighting a lot. So they are gonna talk as if it was in that moment. And then the therapist will propose, like, a, a solution, which is, like, making peace with each other, understanding that's the best for your kid is to, for you guys to understand the kid is half of each one, and then you get together and you're just one, right? And then you're good. So I did it many times. So with this constellation, you understand the importance of valuing your dad and your mom, or not, n- not buying the fight of choosing one side, because you are 50% of each one of them. I'm 50% my dad, I'm 50% my mom. I cannot decide who wins the fight of their devotion, because they are older. They are adults. I am just a kid that are not the responsible for that, and I need to understand and be grateful that they together did me. And I, if I start, if I choose a part, I'm gonna be saying bye to 50% of myself.

Jay Shetty 52:05 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 52:05 So I'm never gonna be happy. I need to be grateful. So that's basically what happens in the constellation. So when, uh, when I do my constellation, it's not only one person that represents me, it's two. One person always comes with Anitta's energy and the other with Larissa energy. And Anitta is very, like, like a superhero. Let's suppose if Larissa was like a kid, insecure and afraid of being judged-

Jay Shetty 52:35 [laughs]

Anitta 52:36 ... afraid of not being loved, if she draw a superhero, that's Anitta, the one that goes there, talk to people. Nothing bad happens to me. I'm the best. I'm the greatest. Ha, I do whatever I want. And, um, that's how it came to life. Um, and when I was becoming a singer, I put this character in real life. The problem is that I was working so much to fulfill my emptiness, and when I was working, I was Anitta, that I started to believe I was just that.

Jay Shetty 53:11 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 53:12 And not value what I was as Larissa, because I was insecure, a regular human that has regular feelings-

Jay Shetty 53:20 Mm-hmm

Anitta 53:20 ... that can be sad, that can be hurt, that can be all of that. So that was when my balance went like this.

Jay Shetty 53:30 Mm.

Anitta 53:31 And it's bad. The other 50% cannot be... cannot feel like you're a shitshow, you know? It doesn't matter if you have another one that comes out and say, "Ha ha ha ha."

Jay Shetty 53:41 [laughs]

Anitta 53:42 "I am amazing."

Jay Shetty 53:43 [laughs]

Anitta 53:44 The other 50% needs to believe that, 'cause the other 50% was the one that, that create, created this one, you know?

Jay Shetty 53:53 For sure.

Anitta 53:54 It's the creature and the creator. Both are amazing. So I needed to accept and see qualities in both of it, and like, Anitta was just, like, this crazy girl that comes there. And also comes from a place of, um, I was assaulted when I was, uh, a teenager, and I had to speak about it, 'cause I was afraid of someone in Brazil that apparently f- found out. I don't know how. And I was, I didn't want my, my sec- my deep secret to be spread, not by me, so I needed to talk about it Um, and after that happened when I was a teenager, I felt like if I was like this, no guy would have ev- would have done that to me. So I created Anitta from this moment of pain and, and sadness, right? Because of that, I cannot feel like Letty says less, you know? I'm just a human that has the same insecurities and fears and, and the feel- the, the feeling like half of me had of Anitta that, oh, yeah, that's the only good thing.

Jay Shetty 55:10 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 55:11 That was making me really bad.

Jay Shetty 55:14 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 55:14 And, uh, I also think that maybe that's why me as a character, Anitta, was just talking so much about sex, about I do this. Sometimes as though I wasn't even doing shit.

Jay Shetty 55:28 [laughs]

Anitta 55:29 I wasn't even doing not even 10% of what I was saying, but I needed to carry the persona. The persona was really important. And that, um, that hurt me, my other side for-

Jay Shetty 55:41 Oh

Anitta 55:41 ... for, because we feel like, come on, I'm not do- that's not real. That's not real. Why am I doing this? And sometimes that would push me away from relationships that I really wanted to have, and, um, I just... A- a- and, and at the same time, this battle would never let me get interested on anybody 'cause I was always feeling, it's like a subconscious thing. I would always feel like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna get hurt.

Jay Shetty 56:10 Mm.

Anitta 56:10 So I would never be interested on anybody, or I would be for three months, and then I would be like, eh-

Jay Shetty 56:16 [laughs]

Anitta 56:16 ... next. Next battle. Next challenge. And that's not healthy.

Jay Shetty 56:22 Yeah.

Anitta 56:22 You know?

Jay Shetty 56:23 Yeah.

Anitta 56:23 It's different.

Jay Shetty 56:24 Did you believe in right person, wrong time at the time, and now you have let that go?

Anitta 56:29 I believe in that. Um, I believe that when things are supposed to happen, they're gonna happen no matter when.

Jay Shetty 56:37 Mm.

Anitta 56:37 It can be now, it can be later, it can come back. So I don't believe... I, I think that's more it. But I also believe that the things that society put in our head-

Jay Shetty 56:50 Mm

Anitta 56:50 ... can mess up-

Jay Shetty 56:53 Mm

Anitta 56:53 ... relations, all types of relations for us. For example, I'm a singer, I'm successful, um, I have my money, et cetera, et cetera. If I decide tomorrow to date a regular guy that I met in, in a bar, at a bar, people will be like, "Ugh, that's all she could get? Oof. Oh, my God, Anitta? With this nobody? Ugh." If it's a man, a successful singer, rich guy meeting a girl in the street that works in a store or works in a bar or s- whatever, they'll be like, "So nice. Did you see? Oh, my God, he met a, a girl. She was a bartender. Oh, my God, and he value her so much. Oh, so nice. He's so sweet. What a great man."

Jay Shetty 57:44 Spot on.

Anitta 57:45 But if it's a famous, successful, rich woman, "Oh, my God, that's all she could get, a bartender? Ugh, sucks. Ugh, no, no real man value her. Ugh." It's kind of like you need a man on your level or more to decide if you're valuable or not. So I think with society, and also, like, for a man, if you were with a woman more successful than you, they were like, "Oh, my God, you see? The woman is so much more." And then it fucks up this guy's self-esteem. So I think it's, um, a yin and yang situation-

Jay Shetty 58:25 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

Anitta 58:25 ... that the society is not understanding that women can a- w- women can be yin or yang or, you know?

Jay Shetty 58:32 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anitta 58:33 And, um, I think that mess up with a lot of good opportunities of people getting together because of society's, um, statements.

Jay Shetty 58:43 Yeah. That's, I mean, that's a really, really interesting point, and I think there's so many versions of that. Like, I've met people who are like, "Oh, well, I can't date that person because if I date someone outside of my community, then people will say, 'Oh, he doesn't date people in our community.'"

Anitta 58:59 Mm-hmm.

Jay Shetty 59:00 And, or, or vice versa, and I feel like there's so many versions of that, and the gender breakdown you just shared, I think it sadly is true, and that's why we can't live up, try to live up to society's expectations-

Anitta 59:11 Exactly. 100%

Jay Shetty 59:12 ... because we're always gonna give away, throw away amazing life opportunities.

Anitta 59:16 Yes.

Jay Shetty 59:17 I know someone was saying to me they can't do a movie because people wouldn't wanna see them with a certain person. And so people are giving up huge career opportunities for themselves because they're worried about what people will think or what people will say.

Anitta 59:29 Yes.

Jay Shetty 59:30 And I mean, talking about that, you recently paid homage to native Brazilian resili- uh, religions in your new music video.

Anitta 59:38 Yeah.

Jay Shetty 59:39 And, you know, which is deeply important to you, and you, you have this, I think, elegant way of balancing your beliefs, and even today, I think we can see what a spiritual individual you are. But not everyone was happy about that.

Anitta 59:52 Yeah.

Jay Shetty 59:52 Like, I think it was, like, something like 200,000 people decided to not follow you anymore.

Anitta 59:56 Yeah. Now it's 300,000.

Jay Shetty 59:57 Now it's 300,000, right. Like-

Anitta 59:59 Yeah

Jay Shetty 59:59 ... walk me through why it was important to you to pay homage to those traditions, why they were so important to you, and then how do you respond and react to the feeling of 300,000 people now, you said?

Anitta 1:00:12 So I already knew that was gonna happen because-

Jay Shetty 1:00:15 Right. You... Yeah

Anitta 1:00:15 ... um, people are very, the intolerance of people, of their beliefs and different beliefs is so, it's crazy. It's crazy. Uh, people don't accept from, in my opinion, religions ... are, it's like veins that go to a heart. They just are in different spots.

Jay Shetty 1:00:36 That's beautiful.

Anitta 1:00:36 But they get to the same place.

Jay Shetty 1:00:39 Mm.

Anitta 1:00:39 To be a better human, to evolve. That what's religion is to me, and I believe in all of them. You can see, I go to the Shanti, Shaman-

Jay Shetty 1:00:49 Yeah

Anitta 1:00:49 ... to the, the church with my mother, and then my Yoruba religion. So my mom is very Catholic. My dad, my dad's family brings with him the Yoruba religion, right? That this religion comes from heritages of like souls, right? Um, this religion was originally in Africa, and when the slaves were kidnapped by, from their countries to be brought to America, South America, they of course had their beliefs and religions, but they were very bad punished, uh, if they were exercising their religions in, um, in Brazil or whatever. So they would kidnap the slaves, bring to Brazil, and tell them, "Now you're Catholic. We don't care, and you cannot exercise your religion here." And if they did, punishment.

Jay Shetty 1:01:52 Wow.

Anitta 1:01:53 Killing, not only punishment. In Brazil, until nowadays, people get into the temples, terreiros, the temples of Yoruba, to break and kill in the name of Jesus. So I honestly don't believe Jes- I believe in Jesus so much, and God, everything, but I don't believe Jesus would come to anybody, such a, a bright soul would say, "If you see somebody doing that, kill this person." I don't, I can't. I don't believe in that. I think Jesus, for me, is forgiven. Forgiveness is love, is understanding each other's, um, moment and, and how the, the speed of each one to evolve, right? It's harder for once, easier for others. It's faster for once. For others, it's not. I believe Jesus and all the angels and all the orishas, they're all ready when a soul asks for forgiveness and for help. I believe they're always ready to help. So I don't believe-

Jay Shetty 1:03:03 Mm-hmm

Anitta 1:03:04 ... there is a, a god or a Jesus that punishes somebody for not following their-

Jay Shetty 1:03:13 Mm-hmm

Anitta 1:03:13 ... the rule. I don't believe in that. And my religion believes in the forces of nature. Yoruba in Brazil is called Candomblé. We believe in there are entities of different... Like the waterfall, the fire, the river, the forest, the, the rain, the sea. So that's what we believe. The sea, Yemọja is from the sea. The fire is Yansan.

Jay Shetty 1:03:42 Mm.

Anitta 1:03:42 Uh, the waterfalls is Oshun. The forest is Oshosi. So we believe in these things and the nature energies. Because of the fact that a lot of people can, um, im- impersonate or feel the, the energy in their bodies, they say it's the demon.

Jay Shetty 1:03:59 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 1:04:00 But you can't just say things without going there and searching for real, getting close and understanding, "Okay, let me see what is this." And I feel like when I'm in my religion, I, and I follow it since I'm a kid because of my dad, um, I never felt bad. I always felt like this peace, and I can't believe a, a, the evil force can just make you feel like so connected to God and so good, you know? And avoiding things that are not good for, for you. You know, when we're there, we cannot drink alcohol. We cannot... You know, it's, it's clean. It's beautiful. We, we don't believe in the devil. We don't believe there is a devil, there is a demon. We believe in humans that can get to a very, very low frequency, a very dark place with their souls, and then they can become evil and mean. So I don't wanna pass the responsibility. I don't wanna just say, "Oh, there is a devil, and the devil's gonna make me be mean." No. We're all humans, and we have the-

Jay Shetty 1:05:09 Choice

Anitta 1:05:09 ... we have the dark side inside of us, and if we let it go, we're gonna become that. We cannot g- find a other, another person to blame. "Oh, no, I did that because the devil." No. You. Let's take responsibility. You know, I, so we, I don't believe, in my religion, we don't believe there is the demon and God. There is God. There is, like, beautiful light, spirits, but there is, like, people, souls that can get to a dark place, and it's our responsibility to decide if we wanna go there or if we, if we wanna go there. Not because we are scared of the law and the justice of a punishing God, because we wanna be good.

Jay Shetty 1:05:54 Mm.

Anitta 1:05:54 I wanna be good 'cause I wanna feel good. I wanna be a good person. Not because I'm scared if I die, oh my God, they're gonna come and kill me. No. You know?

Jay Shetty 1:06:05 Yeah. And it's, it seems like the... Because you knew that you were simply trying to share and express your values and your beliefs and your homage, and you were already disconnected from the fact that people may have a negative viewpoint towards it.

Anitta 1:06:21 Yes. I didn't, I actually did not care 'cause I think whoever wants to fol- nowadays, I chose this. Whoever wants to follow me follows me. If it's 10 people, if it's a million, amazing. I will be happy with 10. I will be happy with a million. I don't care. Um, but I just felt like in Brazil, it's so much prejudice. I feel like I like to speak up about a lot of things in my country. Not only my country, but whatever I feel like, uh, I have knowledge enough to speak of, I do it. Um, or I started studying and then after some months, years, I'm gonna speak about it when I feel like I, I know enough. It has to be a reason why we get famous or we get recognized-

Jay Shetty 1:07:07 Mm-hmm

Anitta 1:07:07 ... or we get people to follow us. We have to use it for something.

Jay Shetty 1:07:12 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 1:07:13 I can't think like, "Okay, God gave me 65 million people to be looking at what I'm doing, and I'm just gonna tell them, 'Buy this, buy that. Use this, use that, and make money and be rich.'" [laughs] I can't. I feel like I need to give back good things for people to have the same tools that I have to be better humans, to be good. And if they feel like they struggle in something, I wanna... If I have the power or the knowledge to send something good, I wanna do it. So I always felt this, um, mission, the r- this responsibility in me. And I don't judge who don't. I feel like each person has your own nos. But because when you do this, that's what happens. You lose people, you get criticized, and some people cannot take it, and I understand that, so I don't judge. I can take it 'cause I don't give a damn. I couldn't care less. So I do it because I feel like a lot of people are in need-

Jay Shetty 1:08:16 Mm-hmm

Anitta 1:08:17 ... of these things. Um, 'cause I know how much my religion helped me when I was struggling, when I felt like I didn't wanna live life anymore 'cause it was not interesting, 'cause n- I was not lovable. I know how much the religion taught me, that I am part of the nature. I'm, I, I, I belong to this. So I want more people to feel that. If you wanna feel, great. If you don't, it's okay. You can do, you know?

Jay Shetty 1:08:45 Yeah, yeah. It's... One of the things I've been thinking about lately is when you get into the top 1% of any industry or any place, you get a lot of 1% experiences. So some of those are these really tough experiences of lots of people disagreeing with you, lots of people may not like what you're doing, the choices that you make. And then at the same time, which is what you happened, happened to you recently, you recently joined Madonna on her tour and did this most historic event of, I think, 1.6 million people.

Anitta 1:09:17 Yeah.

Jay Shetty 1:09:17 Like, I think that's the largest-

Anitta 1:09:18 That was it

Jay Shetty 1:09:19 ... ever audience at a concert.

Jay Shetty 1:09:22 And it's almost like you go from having this experience of, you know, having hundreds of thousands of people unfollow you to then having these moments where you're a part of history. I mean, what did that feel like? What was that experience like?

Anitta 1:09:33 It was great. In Brazil, uh, they do these concerts in Copacabana Beach. I did once. It was... But it was New Year's Eve, so it was five million people. [laughs]

Jay Shetty 1:09:41 Oh, okay. Oh-

Anitta 1:09:42 It was great

Jay Shetty 1:09:42 ... so you've done a bigger one. [laughs]

Anitta 1:09:43 I've... No, but it's because it was New Year's Eve. Come on. Madonna was... It was there. No, it was her, she was the event.

Jay Shetty 1:09:50 It was her show, yeah.

Anitta 1:09:51 And she got a million and 600,000 people.

Jay Shetty 1:09:54 Yeah.

Anitta 1:09:55 It was crazy. But a w- a lot of people in Brazil do that in New Year's Eve at the beach, and it's amazing. But also her concert had a lot of conservatives saying like, "Oh my God, this is so... Oh, the Devil, the ugh." Like, she was a woman that abdicated her life to fight for people, for their sexualities, for the LGBTQ community, for women to be free to feel pleasure, 'cause just men could feel pleasure, and she fought for that. And you have to be really brave to face. And in that time when she started, it was crazy. Cops coming to her, her concert, and e- all the things that she faced to... That 'cause she knew she was bringing acceptance to people that wanted to come out, that wanted to be proud of being gay, that wanted to be proud of being lesbian, of having, feeling pleasure as a woman. So to me, that was really important. That was a woman celebrating like with a million gays, a million and something gays at a beach, that they were free to be gays. That was amazing. You know? Not only gays, but like, I mean, families accepting gays, lesbians, trans. It, it was so important.

Jay Shetty 1:11:27 Mm.

Anitta 1:11:28 But a lot of conservatives were like, "Oh, this is the Devil. This is this. This is that." And I just feel like we have the choice of doing whatever we want, and we don't need to judge our... We're not judges of anything. Before judging another person, we gotta see our own situations. So I just don't feel... If you don't wanna do it, you can just go. Do your thing and let people do what they want. You know? We're not judges here. We're all souls looking for evolution. And, um, that was a... I was so happy that she, she invited me. I also fight for so many things that I believe in my country, you know? And I, and I try to help as much as I can. Um, nowadays, mostly indigenous c- and, and indigenous causes because, um, the way politicians are killing the Amazon, it's crazy. The way they're just not giving a damn to the, to the Amazon, to the environment, it's insane. So I like to fight for that because nature has no voice.

Jay Shetty 1:12:33 Mm.

Anitta 1:12:33 Indigenous are not on social media. They are not influencers. They are there... There are very good influencers, but still don't have voices, um, that have indigenous origins. So I like to do my best, and I was just so happy to be there. I was so happy that she invited me.

Jay Shetty 1:12:52 Yeah. How did she invite you? How did she reach out? How did that come about?

Anitta 1:12:55 Um, we had a song together on her album some years ago, a funk song on her album. And,

Anitta 1:13:02 uh, then when she came to Brazil, the first thing she said, "Okay, we gotta do this." [laughs]

Jay Shetty 1:13:08 [laughs]

Anitta 1:13:09 And I actually couldn't, and then I was, like, moving so many things around-

Jay Shetty 1:13:13 Yeah

Anitta 1:13:13 ... so I could be there. It was so important. And she also invited, uh, Pabllo Vittar, which is a drag queen, very good, great singer of Brazil, very successful, famous drag queen of Brazil.

Jay Shetty 1:13:24 That's amazing. I mean-

Anitta 1:13:25 Yeah

Jay Shetty 1:13:26 ... you know, Anitta, when I'm speaking to you today, and I think when you look at someone like yourself, it's very easy to forget the challenges and the hardships that someone's had on the way up. You know, when you see someone successful, I think a lot of the time we, even if we knew them on the way up, we start believing people were an overnight success, and that's when you were saying earlier that, you know, then we start to write people off, we find the next person, whatever. But you've talked a lot about, you know, even, like, looking at it from a forward-thinking perspective, you talked about just challenges you had with your record label and then finding the right label. Like, could you walk us through some of the key challenges you've had in even breaking out? Because I think the odds of someone like yourself from the favelas who does this is so rare and difficult and, you know, I mean, I don't know what the odds are, but I'm guessing it's, like, you know, one in whatever. W- walk us through some of those key challenges that you think you've had to break through on the way up. Not now, but the ones that you've had on that journey, and maybe the record label one is a good one to, to start with.

Anitta 1:14:32 I think... No, I think the first one was in my country because I come from the favelas, from the ghetto, from the communities, and the rhythm that we do there, it's funk, which would be like the hip hop in the '90s here in the US, people getting arrested for doing it, uh, people b- suffering a lot of prejudice. So that was the first one that I was like, "Wow, people don't want me in restaurants. People don't want me in magazines. People don't want me anywhere. They think I'm the shit show [laughs] because I come from this environment, you know, from this... That's my origin." Um, so that was, like, the first one for me to fight against that and just, like, um, I d- I couldn't even, like, find a management. I was my own manager for so many years, you know? I just, I would be the one going to the brands, trying to convince them to support me or to the radios to negotiate my songs.

Jay Shetty 1:15:28 Wow.

Anitta 1:15:28 Yeah, me-

Jay Shetty 1:15:28 For them to even play it.

Anitta 1:15:30 Yes, me and my brother, to negotiate, like, concerts and everything like that. It was just me and my brother for so many years. And then after that, I think, like, coming out and convincing label, coming out of Brazil, convincing label, team, everybody that this could be something, you know? Because the last time we had a successful artist was 50 years ago with, uh, Tom Jobim, with The Girl from Ipanema and Vinicius de Moraes. And a woman, it was in the '40s with Carmen Miranda. So they were like, "No, that doesn't, that doesn't happen. Brazilians? No."

Jay Shetty 1:16:18 Doesn't work.

Anitta 1:16:18 Because when you say, like, a Latin singer, Brazil is a Latin country, but we speak Portuguese, so it's very different. There, there is another barrier because we speak Portuguese, not Spanish. So the songs that go on in a Spanish market don't happen in Brazil. Whatever happens in Brazil don't happen in a Spanish market. So for me to convince the label or the team, my own team, my own brother that this would work-

Jay Shetty 1:16:45 [laughs] Your own brother, yeah

Anitta 1:16:46 ... was really hard. He was like, "Wow."

Jay Shetty 1:16:49 [laughs]

Anitta 1:16:50 "You'd... finally, when we broke the prejudice here, you wanna go to another thing? We didn't even take time to rest." But again-

Jay Shetty 1:16:56 Yeah

Anitta 1:16:56 ... my, my emptiness was like, "No, we're gonna get it."

Jay Shetty 1:17:00 [laughs]

Anitta 1:17:01 "We're gonna conquer the world." And, um, I just wanted to... I like to try new things and I, I like to challenge myself. You know? I get bored very easily, you know? [laughs] Not only of men. Now it's gonna finish-

Jay Shetty 1:17:16 [laughs]

Anitta 1:17:16 ... for God's sake. Um, and I was like-

Jay Shetty 1:17:19 That's changing now.

Anitta 1:17:20 That's changing, thanks to Jesus, thanks to the spiritual journey. Um, and there's also it, right? 'Cause people think women, when it's, when a woman doesn't have a relationship for many years, it's 'cause a man didn't want it. No, baby, it's 'cause I didn't want it. Let's see what happens from now on.

Jay Shetty 1:17:37 [laughs]

Anitta 1:17:38 But it was a big challenge, and, um, my brother was always like, "Oh my God. Okay, let's go." He would go just to be with me to protect me, but nobody else, they would just be like, "I am not going with this girl. She's crazy." You know?

Jay Shetty 1:17:56 [laughs]

Anitta 1:17:56 And I would put my own money.

Jay Shetty 1:17:58 Wow.

Anitta 1:17:58 I would just do... you know? Just from what I believe and go for it. I just think the difference was that before I was very anxious and pressured and nervous about it and always, like, with this feeling of like, "No, I need to get it. I need to get it." And nowadays I'm like, "It's okay. Whatever happens happens." But this was a big one, and now with... And then, and then it's funny 'cause when I started to, like, bring people from the Spanish market to Brazil and then come out with my, my stuff to outside and things started to go right and go well, then everyone wants to figure out how to do it. Everyone wants to do it too. [laughs]

Jay Shetty 1:18:40 [laughs]

Anitta 1:18:41 And I'm like, "Okay." And until nowadays, like, um- My album was, it's not an easy album to put out. It's a funk, a Brazilian funk album. People don't do Brazilian funk. There's no playlist to add my songs.

Jay Shetty 1:18:54 [laughs]

Anitta 1:18:54 'Cause it's not in, uh, it's not in Portuguese, so the Brazilian funk playlists-

Jay Shetty 1:18:59 Yeah

Anitta 1:18:59 ... it's not in Portuguese. Here outside, there's no playlist of fr- of funk in English. In Spanish, neither. So it's-

Jay Shetty 1:19:07 You're inventing it, though. You're inventing the-

Anitta 1:19:09 I'm, I'm basically doing, like, something. Let's see if everyone joins this crazy-

Jay Shetty 1:19:13 I'm sure they will. Yeah

Anitta 1:19:14 ... thing.

Jay Shetty 1:19:14 [laughs]

Anitta 1:19:14 Let's see what happens. The only reason I could put this album out now is 'cause w- I was super sick. I thought I was gonna die, remember? And I was like, "You know what? I'm gonna..." 'Cause I've been trying to d- this album for so long, but everyone was always like, "No, it's, it's a fail. This album has no place to put." And, and you, you see the, "Okay, this is country. This is pop. This is d- your album, there's nothing. Where is it gonna be? It's just gonna hang around." And, um, it took me a very, like, spiritual place of detachment to be like, "Okay, I'm gonna put out. Whatever happens, happens." So I was sick. I thought I was gonna die. I was like, "I'm just gonna do an album I like, an album that I would do if I didn't care about any of these things, 'cause I'm dying, so whatever." So I did this album exactly like that, and it just got better and got better. I didn't die, and the album is out. And, um, it's funny because, um, still has a lot of, like, uh, challenges with this album because it doesn't have a place to sit. And, um, but I honestly don't care. I'm so proud. I love the album. I can't stop listening to it. And most of my albums I would do to try to get streams, and I wouldn't listen to it, but this, I'm, like, so proud of it. I don't like touring because it's so, for me, it's such a struggle to be flying f- place to place-

Jay Shetty 1:20:44 Yeah

Anitta 1:20:44 ... with no home, being in hotels. Ugh. I carry a bag just of, like, cleansing to the hotels.

Jay Shetty 1:20:49 [laughs]

Anitta 1:20:50 I get there, I have a sage. I have candles. I put mantras in the rooms very loud and be like, "Woo, clean this. Jesus, come clean this bedroom. Please, this bed." Tss, tss, tss, tss. I put sprays. Um, but for me, it's, like, a, a big pressure to be flying from city to city. I called all my priests and, and shamans, and I was like, "Help me in this tour," 'cause now I love this album so much, and I'm like,

Anitta 1:21:14 "I wanna do a tour 'cause I like dancing to this album. I like singing it. Let's go." So we're doing it. And, um, tomorrow, t- tonight is my second, um, my third concert from this tour. And, um, I'm doing good, but I told them, "Help me here."

Jay Shetty 1:21:29 [laughs]

Anitta 1:21:29 " 'Cause I need all the spiritual connection-

Jay Shetty 1:21:31 [laughs]

Anitta 1:21:32 ... for me to not go crazy," 'cause it's a lot of hotels, jumping from place to place.

Jay Shetty 1:21:36 Yeah, yeah.

Anitta 1:21:37 You know?

Jay Shetty 1:21:37 Yeah.

Anitta 1:21:37 It's not healthy mentally.

Jay Shetty 1:21:39 Yeah.

Anitta 1:21:40 It's important, the routine, and to have, like, grounding.

Jay Shetty 1:21:43 Absolutely.

Anitta 1:21:44 On tour, it's important. So for me, I'm like, "Okay, I need, I need support."

Jay Shetty 1:21:50 Yeah.

Anitta 1:21:50 "Spiritual support." But I love this album so much that I was like, "I'm gonna do it 'cause I have so much fun on stage doing it."

Jay Shetty 1:21:57 Yeah.

Anitta 1:21:57 If I'm singing for, um, 2,000 people, 3,000 people, or 40 or 50, it's the same. I just feel really happy.

Jay Shetty 1:22:08 I know you talked about the challenge of changing record labels, and you talked about this pain point of just, like... I think at one point you said, like, you would literally give all your organs away if, you know, if you could get out of it. Walk us through those kind of decisions, because I feel like if you're not in the music industry, we don't actually understand what's controlling what and how things interlink, and we don't know what artists are going through. So from that perspective, if you could tell us-

Anitta 1:22:34 Um-

Jay Shetty 1:22:35 ... about that transition.

Anitta 1:22:36 So about record label, I just think, I do think nowadays that I wasn't that mature in the way I did it, but maybe if I didn't do that way, I wasn't be in the position that I am right now, so we will never know. It is what it is. I will never be like, "Oh, my God." I never regret things 'cause I think things happen for a reason. It's just, I really think the way things happen in business should change a little bit, you know? Um, 'cause when we are, when we are chasing something, we don't know what's there, right? So we just, we go through deals and situations not knowing what's the reality when we get there. And that's a very tricky point because if I'm in this side and I know what's the reality, why would I do something to a person that I know is gonna be there and it's gonna be different, you know? So I just think business in general, not only labels, but yes, labels too, um, the investments, the things. I don't know if it's because I'm more of a business person than just the artist. I don't feel like I have the perfect voice or the best dance or the... I think I have a little bit of everything, and then it, it, I, I get there, you know? It's a, a combo. Um, I just think the investments and the th- it should be more clear so we understand why they do some type of things and why you should do some type of things. But sometimes in all the business, all the industry, and then it's not only about h- uh, record labels. People come here and they say, "Yeah, yeah. Let's do it," and they leave, and they're like, "Ah, forget it." And this should not be like that. Things should be... And for me, things are very... I like real stuff, real talk. You sit down at me, I will tell you, "The problem is ba pa pa pa pa ra na ra na." And I expect you to say, "Okay, so the problem here is da da da da da da da da da da da da." And I'll be like, "Okay, how we get this sorted? We do this. We do, do it, uh, da, da, da." Cool, cool. We both do it. But sometimes, most of the times, it's not. I sit and I, and I'm never gonna change, so I just sit down and I'm like, "Here's the problem. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba." That doesn't mean I don't like you. Doesn't, that doesn't mean you're not a good person. That means we have this problem.

Jay Shetty 1:25:11 Yeah.

Anitta 1:25:12 And nowadays, me and my brother, we worked together for so many years, so when we have issues in a company, we, we have a company together, we have crazy fights. Da, da, ba, da, la, la, la. Let's go to the movies. Let's... And we go 'cause we love each other. We can discuss. Ta, ta, ta. Whatever I said is what's gonna happen. Whatever he said is what's gonna happen. Ba, ba, ba, boom. And we have the ability of still look in each other's face and be like, "I appreciate. I love you. Let's go do whatever." But people have a very hard time on doing that, and I don't, I will never understand why, but that's how things work. They just talk here. I talk my real shit. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.

Jay Shetty 1:25:57 [laughs]

Anitta 1:25:58 They talk whatever is necessary for you to shut up, and then you go home and you see that n-

Anitta 1:26:06 it worked-

Jay Shetty 1:26:06 Yeah

Anitta 1:26:06 ... for nothing.

Jay Shetty 1:26:07 Yeah.

Anitta 1:26:07 For no reason, you spent two hours of your life that you could've been sleeping, taking a nap, literally. And then people have this... But I think it's in all industries. I don't think it's only in record labels. I don't think it's only-

Jay Shetty 1:26:21 Yeah

Anitta 1:26:21 ... in music.

Jay Shetty 1:26:22 It's everywhere.

Anitta 1:26:22 I think it's everywhere. People in work have a very hard time on sitting down and being like, "The problem for you is this. For me, it's this. Let's do this." Yeah. And then do what they actually agreed it.

Jay Shetty 1:26:37 Mm-hmm.

Anitta 1:26:37 It's, so for me, it's... I don't know. Maybe I would never get to understand, uh, the way business run. That's why I go slow and, and, you know, with my hard times. But I go. [laughs]

Jay Shetty 1:26:52 That's brilliant. I love hearing that.

Anitta 1:26:53 Yeah.

Jay Shetty 1:26:53 And I can see just... I want everyone who's listening, if you're not watching, when I'm sitting with you, I f- I, I... It's so resonant to me that there's such, you're s- at such a peaceful place with that. And what I think's really beautiful and special, I was in Bhutan recently this year, and Bhutan's known for measuring gross national happiness, not GDP. So they measure happiness there, and they have spiritual tradition and culture.

Anitta 1:27:17 And where is that?

Jay Shetty 1:27:18 It's landlocked between India and China.

Anitta 1:27:21 Okay.

Jay Shetty 1:27:21 So it's a tiny country. But they have this incredible heart of spirituality that runs through everything they do.

Anitta 1:27:28 Uh-huh.

Jay Shetty 1:27:29 And the king famously said they measure GNH, gross national happiness. So I was visiting there this year, and I met a filmmaker there. Uh, his name was Pawo. Very wonderful gentleman. Very, very talented. And he, with a very small budget for a movie, made a movie that got Oscar-nominated, but Bhutan wasn't even on the list of countries to have an Oscar nomination. But because of him now, the movie got... You know, the Bhutan is now on the list, and I often think about that with cultures, traditions, genres that we don't know about yet, that there aren't a Grammy Award for, that there aren't, you know, uh, like you're saying, like, there isn't a place for Brazilian funk. Like, what playlist does that go on? But I think that's what the world is looking for right now, this opportunity to be introduced. I'm always looking for discovering new... I was, uh, I was talking about records. I, I really got into collecting records, and I was traveling, and I really got into Brazilian jazz lately, and I never knew about Brazilian jazz growing up and... If it wasn't for the ability to bump into something. And so I actually think what you're doing for music, for the audio library, for, for people to have these experiences is, is really cool and powerful because just like Pawo, who's trying to tell the story of Bhutan, that like you, like you asked, "Where is that?" A lot of people don't know where Bhutan is, and they don't know what it is. But because of Pawo now, they can watch his movies and understand Bhutan. And similarly with you, someone who may not know about Brazilian funk is now gonna have the opportunity to understand what that is and what that feels like. And, and you think about that. Like, someone had to be first, whether it was hip-hop-

Anitta 1:29:08 Yes

Jay Shetty 1:29:08 ... whether it was-

Anitta 1:29:09 And it's always gonna be harder for the first

Jay Shetty 1:29:11 It's always harder.

Anitta 1:29:12 It's gonna [laughs] ... It's always gonna be harder-

Jay Shetty 1:29:14 Always harder

Anitta 1:29:14 ... for the first. I know that. And, uh, even nowadays with funk in Brazil, it was not playing the radios. It was not... The, the events couldn't play funk. It was very hard. It could only listen to it in the favelas inside of the communities. So it was a big, big fight. Nowadays, people forget it, but at that time, me and my brother, that we worked hard for it to happen, we remember very well 'cause we know the struggle. But I, I actually used to care a lot if people remembered or not. Nowadays, I just don't care.

Jay Shetty 1:29:48 [laughs]

Anitta 1:29:49 I just wanna have a good time. I just wanna be happy. Uh, and because before, I was doing it, but I wanted the credibility of people saying that I was the one who did it, and that there was this time my, my therapist, which is my shaman, she said, "So why are you doing?" I was like, "Oh, because, you know, I wanna change people's lives." And she was like, "Oh, so why do you care if people, um, acknowledged if it was you or not? If they changed their life, that's it. That's what you wanted." And then I was thinking. I was like, "What if ego trip that I was n-", right? 'Cause I would say, "It was for the people," but I was very worried with the pe- if the people would say it was me. So in the end of the day, if it's for the people-

Jay Shetty 1:30:32 [laughs]

Anitta 1:30:32 ... we should not care if people are acknowledging or not-

Jay Shetty 1:30:35 Yeah

Anitta 1:30:35 ... if you, if it was you or not.

Jay Shetty 1:30:37 Absolutely.

Anitta 1:30:38 So right now, I'm in this place of, like... And, and, and I think that's what it took, it would take for me to be in this, in this spiritual place of, like, to do this album or to do whatever I wanna do, to be in a place of, like, not care about ... the response. Just do what I, what makes me happy at the moment, you know? And I'm, like, very much like that now, and I understand that could be less successful, maybe

Anitta 1:31:06 not number one, maybe not number 50, but I couldn't care less 'cause inside I feel way better than when I was number one. So much happier.

Jay Shetty 1:31:15 I'm so happy for you, Anitta.

Anitta 1:31:17 Yeah.

Jay Shetty 1:31:17 I feel that for you.

Anitta 1:31:18 [laughs]

Jay Shetty 1:31:18 That's, that's brilliant. No, what a, what a beautiful place to be in.

Anitta 1:31:21 Yes.

Jay Shetty 1:31:22 Uh, Anitta, you have been a joy to talk to, honestly.

Anitta 1:31:25 Thank you.

Jay Shetty 1:31:25 I've, I've enjoyed so much sharing energy with you, exchanging energy with you.

Anitta 1:31:29 Me too.

Jay Shetty 1:31:29 I feel, I feel uplifted, inspired. I feel connected, and I think everyone who's listening and watching will have felt that from your presence and your words and, you know, the wisdom that you shared as well, I think you've, you've mentioned in your own words so times, so many times I think you've been underestimated. Uh, people only perceive someone for the character they play or from one dimension, and my genuine hope and intention is that this interview will-

Anitta 1:31:54 Yeah

Jay Shetty 1:31:55 ... just, just sh- showcase the multifaceted, multidimensional individual that you are, and-

Anitta 1:32:00 Yes

Jay Shetty 1:32:00 ... I love the way you're able to be playful and profound all at the same time.

Anitta 1:32:03 Ah.

Jay Shetty 1:32:04 And so-

Anitta 1:32:04 Yeah, I think, I think people, that's what I want from people now in my life and my career. I want people to understand that we need to find a

Anitta 1:32:13 balance. We are in the material world, so we cannot be just spiritual. We need to eat. We need to, you know, [laughs] we need-

Jay Shetty 1:32:19 Mm-hmm

Anitta 1:32:19 ... to work so we can have a house to live in. So we just need to find the balance. So I do make music to shake your ass, to have fun, to jump, let's have sex, da da da. But it's also important to come back and have the other side too. So we can never be happy if we're only, um, going to one side. The other side is always gonna feel like, "Oh, but you didn't look at me." We need to have the balance, the, the perfect balance. That's why we are in the material world, to understand the, the balancing between these two things, to be able to, to walk around here and not let these things make you feel, like, heavy and life is only material, or just not only walk around here and forget the other side exists, you know? It's, we're here in the middle, and that's the most important thing, to be in the middle.

Jay Shetty 1:33:11 Absolutely. Absolutely. Well said. Uh, we end every On Purpose interview with a final five.

Anitta 1:33:17 Okay.

Jay Shetty 1:33:17 So these questions have to be answered in one word-

Anitta 1:33:19 Okay

Jay Shetty 1:33:20 ... to one sentence maximum.

Anitta 1:33:21 Okay.

Jay Shetty 1:33:22 And so these are your final five, Anitta. Question number one: what is the best advice you've ever heard or received?

Anitta 1:33:32 I think it's that I'm in control.

Jay Shetty 1:33:35 Mm.

Anitta 1:33:35 I command. What people do, they command. How you react and receive, you command.

Jay Shetty 1:33:44 Mm, well said. Uh, what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?

Anitta 1:33:51 Oh, ch-ch-ch-ch, never give up.

Jay Shetty 1:33:54 [laughs]

Anitta 1:33:55 Ugh, I hate this. Never give up.

Jay Shetty 1:33:57 [laughs] It's okay to give up.

Anitta 1:33:58 Oh my God, it's so okay to give up. Ugh, if you're struggling, give up. Take a nap. Rest. Do something. Then you come back when you're fine.

Jay Shetty 1:34:08 [laughs] Well said. All right, question number three: what's the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do every night?

Anitta 1:34:16 Oh, it's the same. I have this book, Five Minutes a Day. I wake up, I write, uh, what I w- three things I want for the day, th- thing, three things I'm grateful for, and, um, affirmations. At night, same page, how three things that was amazing in the day and, uh, what I learned today.

Jay Shetty 1:34:36 Mm, I love that. Question number four: what's something you've learned recently?

Anitta 1:34:41 I learned this very important thing. When a person don't ask you for help, don't help. If the person ask, you help. Don't help someone that didn't ask for the help. If she didn't ask, she doesn't want, or he.

Jay Shetty 1:35:02 Yeah. It's unsolicited sometimes. We, we're trying to fix everyone.

Anitta 1:35:05 Yeah, because we are buying someone's struggle, and this person can feel offended. This, for the energy in the family constellation, we, we learn that when you help a person that is not asking for your help, it's like you're buying this karma.

Jay Shetty 1:35:22 Mm.

Anitta 1:35:23 You know?

Jay Shetty 1:35:24 Yeah. I'm gonna go off-piste slightly 'cause you inspired a question in me. How, how has spirituality changed your view of dating and relationships, romantic relationships?

Anitta 1:35:35 I feel like it's like a dance nowadays. Before, I used to feel like relationships was what I was reading outside, seeing outside from others. And nowadays, spirituality taught me that the relationship that you have with yourself is gonna be the mirror for the relationship that you have with the other. So nowadays I work at myself a lot so I can have a relationship with somebody, and when I find somebody that is not having a good relationship with himself, it doesn't... I underst- I already know that it's not gonna work, and I don't insist. I let the person know, "I am here. I'm working on myself, and you're here for us to have a good, healthy, soft, easy, nice thing, and grow together inside." If no-

Jay Shetty 1:36:35 Mm

Anitta 1:36:35 ... then it's not, you know?

Jay Shetty 1:36:38 Mm.

Anitta 1:36:38 But I used to think of relationship one very different way, very different way, that the person needed to add me and all the things that people outside ask. "Oh, h- what does he do? Da, da, da. Does he do this? Da, da, da. How is the family? What if you have kids?" Nowadays I just see inside. Do you treat yourself very well? If yes, then let's go, 'cause I treat myself very well, too.

Jay Shetty 1:37:02 Mm-hmm. I love that. Uh, fifth and final question. We ask this to every guest who's ever been on the show. If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

Anitta 1:37:15 I would create a limit of money that each person can have.

Jay Shetty 1:37:21 Wow.

Anitta 1:37:23 That's it. That's what you can have. Now, the more you have, you're gonna pass to the nature. You don't need to pass... I understand, the money comes for those who work out, work hard, put an effort. But after some- here, you don't need more. No one needs that much. You need to share.

Jay Shetty 1:37:51 Mm.

Anitta 1:37:52 If you wanna build a school, cool. If you wanna protect the Amazon, cool. If you want whatever. No one needs... I'm talking about necessity. No one needs billions. Billions, no more, no- nobody needs. The necessity, it's not, it's not there.

Jay Shetty 1:38:12 Anitta, phenomenal answer. Fantastic interview. Thank you so much.

Anitta 1:38:16 Thank you.

Jay Shetty 1:38:16 It has been such a joy. It's been wonderful being with you. I hope that everyone who's been listening or watching, let me and Anitta know what resonated with you. I know you guys cut up the best clips for TikTok and Instagram, and make sure you tag both of us so that we can see what stayed with you, what connected with you, what meant something to you. I'm sure that there were so many insights and so many points of wisdom that Anitta shared today that have left a mark on you, and I can't wait to see what has stayed with you. Anitta, thank you so much again-

Anitta 1:38:44 Thank you

Jay Shetty 1:38:44 ... for this opportunity.

Anitta 1:38:45 It was such a pleasure.

Jay Shetty 1:38:46 It was such a joy.

Anitta 1:38:47 I loved it.

Jay Shetty 1:38:47 I'm so grateful and, uh, yeah, thank you for sharing this time with me. Thank you.

Anitta 1:38:50 Thank you.

Jay Shetty 1:38:51 Thank you.

Anitta 1:38:51 Mm-hmm.

Jay Shetty 1:38:52 If this is the year that you're trying to get creative, you're trying to build more, I need you to listen to this episode with Rick Rubin on how to break into your most creative self, how to use unconventional methods that lead to success, and the secret to genuinely loving what you do. If you're trying to find your passion and your lane, Rick Rubin's episode is the one for you.

Speaker 1:39:15 Just because I like it, that doesn't give it any value. Like, as an artist, if you like it, that's all of the value. That's the success comes when you say, "I like this enough for other people to see it"